


this is how the story really goes

by anupturnedboat



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Angst and Feels, Angst and Romance, Complicated Relationships, Developing Relationship, F/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-18
Updated: 2014-05-18
Packaged: 2018-01-25 16:03:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 671
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1654415
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anupturnedboat/pseuds/anupturnedboat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lust is easy. Love is hard. Like is most important. ~Carl Reiner</p><p>Post Season Finale one shot.</p><p>It isn't easy. This thing between them is a lot of things, but not . . . easy.  People who think these kinds of things are - have no idea.</p>
            </blockquote>





	this is how the story really goes

It isn't easy. This thing between them is a lot of things, but not . . . _easy_. People who think these kinds of things are - have no idea.

Emma Swan has no false expectations. Not the night they kiss for real, or the next day, when it sort of feels like the world is singing to her for the first time - _a delicious and exhilarating feeling._

Despite all evidence to the contrary, she reminds herself that they are not living in a fairy tale. That in this world, true love is just a theory, or maybe just for certain people. Not her, never for her.

So things don’t automatically fall into place somewhere before the words, _and they lived happily ever after_.

Instead, it is –awkward. Mary Margaret and Ruby plan a belated reception for Belle and Gold. What was up with that quickie wedding anyway? Killian reaches for her hand, she's drinking champagne, and it should be easy, but instead it feels strange, and she looks around to see if anyone notices. He frowns, because he _notices._ Later, when everyone is drunk, he forgives her. His lips are in her hair, and even though it is spring, it starts to snow. She moves this way and he tilts that way, their noses bump, and their lips are clumsy. But she concedes that the way he looks at her is just perfect.

It is messy. Her father catches them at the station. Her shirt is rucked up, and she is completely in the moment. It is is embarrassing for so many reasons, but mostly because she’s still not ready to admit how much Killian means to her. It doesn’t help that her father and Mary Margaret are still wary of trusting Killian completely, a feeling echoed by many of the others in town. She is acutely aware that the two of them being together has other ramifications. The guilt over Regina suffering another disappointment because of her never fades away. Henry never calls her out on the decision to bring Marian back, but the frustration he feels at the continued animosity is palpable. Killian already knows all her secret places, but keeps his hands to himself long enough to listen. Sometimes he even makes her laugh when she is on the verge of freaking out.

It is uncertain. He makes her angry when he doesn’t tell her things, even though after that last curse he’d promised. Even though she knows it is to spare her from feeling guilty about the loss of Jolly Roger, she is still pissed off that he has plans to get the ship back. Plans that entail leaving Storybrooke. _And how does he think he’s going to jaunt off for a few days without her wondering where he is?_   She says he is terrible at this whole relationship thing, and he mutters something about a kettle and a pot. She gives him the cold shoulder, and he almost doesn’t go through with it. But she catches him down at the docks and wraps her arms around him tightly, insisting he go, and that he better come back to her. “Not a day will go by-” he starts, but she rolls her eyes and stops him with an anxious kiss. She knows just what he means, and that is liberating but scary all at the same time.

It is a work in progress. They don’t talk about the future; things are always too transient for that. But she buys a house by the water, and the Jolly rocks contentedly in its new home. He stays the night more often than not. Occasionally he trades in his leather for jeans and a woolen coat that is scratchy against her cheek. Picking up a sword and or getting knocked out in a fight, happens more often than you’d think in a sleepy New England town. His roughened hands tend to her wounds, and as she curls against him in the dark, she tells him she couldn’t imagine doing this with anyone else.


End file.
